you made it so: distressed desk & reupholstered chair

Posted on May 18, 2011 by imadeitso

i haven’t done a you-made-it-so in a while, but i had to share this email and desk/chair makeover from my friend tara…

Hey Ana!

I painted an old desk yesterday that has been begging for some love (it was my brother’s school desk when we were kids- some furniture never leaves). Jackson asked me why I was using sandpaper to take off some of the white paint I had just used. I told her I was distressing it. I said it was a thing people do to furniture to make it look old, and that I was following the steps from YouTube. “Weird, huh?” I said, and she said, “Mama, are you trying to make the furniture look like you feel?” Ha!

I couldn’t help looking at my new, old desk and saying to myself, “I MADE IT SO!” That got me thinking about the chair that was sitting beside it. My grandma’s 100 year old chair was badly in need of a new seat cover. A few days ago the zipper on one of the pillow cases you made me broke. I am clueless when it comes to zippers, and I was thinking of getting some velcro, or just hand sewing it up, but it was still sitting on my couch with the pillow hanging out.

Then suddenly I had a thought…(see pic)

distressed painted desk plus recovered chair cushion

tara, i already mentioned this to you, but i love how you used the pillow case as a cover for the chair. and i’ve repainted furniture much like that desk there. i know just how much work that is. satisfying project though, huh? looks fab!

you can read (as tara calls it) her pillows’ birth story here.

and you can read a blog post tara recently wrote about tables and all the creative things that happen around them. i think many of you might relate… here.

thanks tara!

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5 Responses to you made it so: distressed desk & reupholstered chair

  1. Van says:
    May 18, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    The table and chair here look amazing! The last time I recovered a chair, I simply tucked the fabric underneath…didn’t stable it or do a professional job. Maybe I’ll eventually get to hot gluing it…I love to improvise.

    Hey, as long as the job gets done…!

    • imadeitso says:
      May 18, 2011 at 12:58 pm

      well hey, it’ll make taking it off really easy for the next time you want to re-cover it ;) yep, as long as it works. glue gun? i would’ve thought staple gun.

  2. Tara Benwell says:
    May 19, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    Yeah…about that staple gun. It needs staples, so for now it’s tucked under. Staying in place so far, even with my little monster racing cars all over it today!

  3. Angela says:
    May 20, 2011 at 9:16 am

    Looks great! Hey- I once thrifted a whole bolt of that fabric for $3!

  4. e l l a says:
    May 20, 2011 at 11:38 pm

    It looks great Tara ;)
    Funny, I also just distressed a desk recently and brought it a new life.
    I still plan to recover the chair also but I got stuck on that. But I do appreciate all the tips on how to get it on. A glue gun is my best friend ;)
    xo